Woman says she suffered stroke after getting her hair shampooed at salon

Two women say they developed blood clots from tipping their heads back into beauty salon shampoo bowls.

"I really didn't know you had to think about your safety when you get your hair shampooed and dried," Elizabeth Smith told IE. The San Diego woman says she experienced numbness down the left side of her body.

Doctors found a blood clot near the top of her spine had triggered a stroke, Smith said. She fears that clot, which she believes was caused by hyperextending her neck at the salon, will someday kill her, she said.

Mary Noonan says she also developed a clot, but did not suffer a stroke.

She never connected having her hair washed "with possibly dying of a stroke," she said.

The vast majority of people get their hair washed at salons without any problems, but a number of beauty shops are now taking extra steps to keep their clients free of injuries.

According to neurologist Dr. Clifford Segil of Santa Monica, California, the rare hazard has a name: beauty parlor stroke syndrome.

"When getting your hair shampooed at a beauty parlor, you should exercise caution (and) not hyperextend your neck," he told IE. "Anytime you put your neck in a non-anatomical position, you stretch it and it makes it more vulnerable (to) irritation, tearing, sheering and other injuries."